5
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Accepted
Are there any direct comments by Isaac Newton on Leibniz's living force / vis-viva?
The controversy was not so much about the tension between vis viva and mechanics, as about what is the "true" quantity of motion, vis viva or momentum, and what is the "metaphysical&...
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5
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What exactly did Lagrange do, historically?
I recently came across an article that helped me put Lagrange's work in a very interesting perspective:
Author: Craig Fraser (historian of science)
Subject: d'Alembert's Traité de Dynamique
http://...
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2
votes
Newton's Corollary #1 to the Laws of Motion (Principia)
The question you raise is a good one, and it has to do with two of the laws of motion, both the first law (about inertia and the lack of need for any external influence to maintain an existing ...
- 3,044
2
votes
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Did the concept of mass exist before Newton?
The American Journal of Physics article The pre-Newtonian Meaning of the Word Weight notes that Newton used the Latin term pondus, which translates as weight, though he clearly meant mass, writing in ...
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2
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Einstein's Objection to Drude Model
In the paper Einstein's controversy with Drude and the origin of statistical mechanics: A new glimpse from the "Love Letter" by J. Renn, (1997), we read:
The nature of Einstein's objections ...
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1
vote
What led to the formula $W=\vec{F} \cdot \overrightarrow{d s}$?
Mirowski P., More heat than light (1989 Cambr.UP), Chap.2. pp.11-98 The history of the energy concept.< It's a great book for various other reasons.>
For Ernst Mach, energy was more or less ...
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How did Newton measure forces in his experiments to establish the laws of motion?
It is often forgotten that Newton did not claim the laws of motion as his own. In the 'Principia' he gave these laws the alternative title 'axioms' -- starting-points that were not considered to need ...
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